Traditions

For my book club we just read Christmas Jars and it was an excellent read! I highly recommend it. It's a really short book so it won't take too much time to read. Anyway, the book got me thinking about traditions. This time of year a lot of people have traditions they do with their families and this has me thinking of traditions I've shared with my family and new traditions we're hoping to make with our daughter.

When I was growing up on Christmas eve my family always went a movie. It was the only time of year Dad would go to the movies and we looked forward to it all year. We saw some funny movies, such as "The Santa Clause" and "Earnest Saves Christmas" and some real duds, such as "Mousehunt." We still tease Dad for picking that one---it was terrible! Anyway, when we would go home, we would go our seperate ways, but usually at some point Mom and I would end up in front of the tree and she always said "this is the prettiest tree we've ever had" and I would retort, "you always say that." On Christmas morning we had to wait until we were all together to walk in to the tree and it used to bug me to death because my brother was really hard to get up and I was always SO READY to see what Santa had brought. He would finally drag himself out of bed and then we would open our gifts one at a time, talking and laughing. I love those memories and I really do cherish them.

We don't have many traditions with our daughter, but this year I'm hoping to begin one. I'm going to make a Gingerbread house with her this year. Of course, I'll be making most of it, but hopefully we can start the tradition of making one every year so she'll be able to help later on. After it's been made, we can enjoy using it as a centerpiece for a week or so and then all eat it together after dinner on Christmas Eve. I'm hoping this will catch one, but I may be really bad at making the houses, so we'll see. I know I'll enjoy doing it this year, if for no other reason than it will be a memory I'll have forever.